North Korea ups the ante in war of words, threatens to attack US bases

By Chelsea J. Carter, CNN

Updated 7:04 PM ET, Tue March 26, 2013

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Rare images from North Korea – Technicians check the North Korean satellite launch vehicle Unha-3 on the launch pad at the Sohae Satellite Launching Center on April 8.

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Rare images from North Korea – The usually secretive North Korea organised an unprecedented visit for foreign reporters to Tongchang-ri space centre on April 8. During the train journey from Pyongyang to the North Pyongan Province, a journalist took this picture of a North Korean soldier standing at an observation post.

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Rare images from North Korea – North Korean women are seen from the window of the train as they work on a paddy field, April 8, 2012.

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Rare images from North Korea – The train passes by a small town on the way to the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang in the country's north-west.

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Rare images from North Korea – A troupe of North Korean soldiers is seen marching along the railway, carrying flags.

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Rare images from North Korea – A North Korean soldier stands guard in front of the Unha-3 rocket during a media tour of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station on April 8, 2012.

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Rare images from North Korea – North Korea announced last month that it would launch a rocket carrying a satellite between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the Communist state.

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Rare images from North Korea – A North Korean cameraman films a map showing the site where the Unah-3 rocket is being prepared for launch.

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Rare images from North Korea – North Korean technicians work at the control room of the Tongchang-ri space center on April 8. The North Korean regime insists it's launching a satellite, not testing a missile.

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Rare images from North Korea – North Korean officials and foreign journalists leave the launch pad after a visit to see the rocket Unha-3 at the space center on April 8.

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Story highlights

North Korea on Tuesday threatens to attack U.S. and South Korean bases

Pyongyang puts its troops on full alert and announces its military is ready for combat

The threat comes amid joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises

North Korea upped the ante Tuesday in its war of words, threatening to target South Korea and U.S. military bases.

Even by North Korean standards, the series of threats this month by leader Kim Jong Un and ensuing actions have been incredibly provocative, making the situation on the Korean Peninsula more worrisome.

Here's a look at Kim's escalating rhetoric and his country's actions since he came to power after his father's death in 2011:

March 2012

As South Korea hosts world leaders at an international nuclear security summit in Seoul, North Korea moves a long-range rocket toward a launch pad.

Pyongyang says it plans to carry out the test in mid-April as part of a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the nation's founder.

The test is designed "to defend the country's security and sovereignty in the face of the ferocious hostile act of the U.S.," the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency says at the time, referring to new U.S.-led sanctions.

"This nuclear test is our first measure, which displayed our maximum restraint. ... If the U.S. continues with their hostility and complicates the situation, it would be inevitable to continuously conduct a stronger second or third measure."

March 2013

Angered by U.N. Security Council sanctions over its nuclear test, North Korea threatens for the first time to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States and South Korea.

It's one of a series of provocative threats and, in some cases, actions by North Korea that begins with Pyongyang saying it is scrapping the 1953 truce that effectively ended the Korean War. At the same time, it cuts off its direct phone links with South Korea at Panmunjom, the abandoned village that sits on the border between the two countries.

North Korea then doubles down on the threat, saying it is nullifying the joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. One of the country's top generals, according to published reports, claims Pyongyang has nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that are ready to be fired.

Although U.S. officials don't believe North Korea is in a position to strike the United States, the Obama administration responds to the threat by announcing plans to deploy additional ground-based missile interceptors on the West Coast.

Pyongyang releases a new propaganda video that shows an imaged missile attack on U.S. government buildings in Washington, including the White House and the Capitol. The roughly four-minute video is posted on the YouTube channel of the North Korean government website Uriminzokkiri.

North Korea threatens Tuesday to attack U.S. and South Korea bases, putting its troops on alert. It announces through state-run media that the military is ready for combat. The threat follows claims that U.S. B-52 bombers again made flights Monday over South Korea.